Massive Facelift to Microsoft OneNote for Android Brings Share Intent and Multi-Window Support

Back in October, we talked about Microsoft’s Remote Desktop client for Android. The app came as a bit of a surprise at the time because unlike other Microsoft offerings on Android, this app worked quite well and was a legitimately good offering. Now, Microsoft has given a rather massive facelift to its previously less than stellar OneNote Android app. And much like their Remote Desktop client, the latest version of OneNote is surprisingly good.

Anyone who spent any appreciable amount of time with both the Windows and Android versions of OneNote would be quick to point out their differences. While the Windows app is able to take powerful and user friendly notes of any type, complete with pen support, ink annotations, and rich formatting, the Android app previously only allowed users to take very basic notes.

Now, Microsoft’s latest update to the OneNote app brings some key features that were previously lacking. While the Android app’s latest revision still unfortunately lacks pen and inking support, it packs several new features that make it much more of a contender to apps such as Evernote and the like.

Share Intent

The most important change brought by this update is support for Android’s powerful Share intent. Now, you can start a note from practically anywhere by using that application’s share function. This works with any app that supports the Share intent, even screenshots from the Gallery app.

Once a note has been added, a handy notification pops up, telling you that the content has successfully been added to your OneNote notebook. Tapping the notification then brings up the new content that you just shared.

Other Improvements

In addition to the newly found Share intent support, this update also brings support for multi-window on select Samsung devices. So if you happen to be running a Samsung device and ROM that offers split screen functionality, this application is in the supported whitelist. Of course, you could have always manually done this in the past with third-party root-enabled apps. That said, it’s nice to see more apps take advantage of this feature, even if it’s only on certain devices.

Finally, the application now offers vastly more powerful widget support. Rather than just being able to create simple notes from your home screen, you can now also view and directly access your notes.

This latest update now makes OneNote a legitimately useful note-taking app. Surprisingly, it is now a great option for those looking to try out a new notes app. But is it enough to win over users already happy with other solutions like Evernote? If you’re already in the Microsoft OneNote world as a Windows OneNote user, certainly. But if you don’t already use OneNote on the PC and you already have a working note-taking system with a cloud-connected notes app like Evernote, we find it unlikely that you’ll want to ditch your current solution in favor of Microsoft’s latest offering.

You can learn more about the changes in this latest version by visiting the source link below. And if you wish to give the latest version a try, head over to the app’s Google Play Store listing.

Do you think that this latest update helps to redeem Microsoft in the mobile space? Are you going to replace your current note-taking apps such as Evernote and Google Keep with OneNote? Let us know in the comments below.

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